Joanna McKittrick (1954 – November 15, 2019) was an American engineer and college professor, the second woman to join the engineering faculty at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Joanna McKittrick | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1954 New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | November 15, 2019 La Jolla, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Engineer, university professor |
| Years active | 1988–2019 |
| Known for | Research on biomaterials and advocacy for underrepresented students in STEM |
Early life edit
Joanna McKittrick was born in New Jersey, the daughter of John R. McKittrick and Estella Ruth Pederson McKittrick. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a teacher.[1] She earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master's degree from Northwestern University. She completed doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the field of materials science and engineering.[2]
Career edit
McKittrick was a professor in the engineering program at the University of California, San Diego, from 1988. She was the second woman to join the program (chemical engineer Jan B. Talbot was the first). McKittrick's research focused luminescent materials for medical, automotive, and aviation applications,[3][4] and biomaterials such as chitin, keratin, and collagen.[5][6] She worked with fellow UCSD professor Marc A. Meyers on biomaterials.[7] "Mother Nature gives us templates," she explained in 2013, of her work studying spiders, seahorses, boxfish, and porcupines. "We are trying to understand them better so we can implement them in new materials."[3]
McKittrick was a fellow of the American Ceramic Society.[8][9] She wrote or co-wrote over a hundred academic journal articles, and was an editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.[2] McKittrick was a mentor for minority and women engineering students, including Lauren Rohwer and Olivia Graeve.[10] She was faculty advisor of UCSD's student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.[5]
Personal life edit
McKittrick died in November 2019, aged 65 years, at her home in La Jolla, California.[5] Her colleagues held a memorial at the 8th International Conference on Mechanics of Biomaterials and Tissues a month later.[2]
References edit
- ^ "Obituary for Estella Ruth McKittrick (Pederson)" Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home (2012).
- ^ a b c "Obituary for Joanna McKittrick". International Conference on Mechanics of Biomaterials and Tissues - Elsevier. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ a b Robbins, Gary (2019-12-16). "Pioneering UC San Diego engineer Joanna McKittrick dies at 65". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ Jacoby, Mitch (November 19, 2018). "The chemical search for better white light". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ a b c "News Obituary: Professor Joanna McKittrick". UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ "Tough, light and strong: Lessons from nature could lead to the creation of new materials". EurekAlert!. February 14, 2013. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ Meyers, Marc André; McKittrick, Joanna; Chen, Po-Yu (2013). "Structural Biological Materials: Critical Mechanics-Materials Connections". Science. 339 (6121): 773–779. Bibcode:2013Sci...339..773M. doi:10.1126/science.1220854. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 23365956. PMID 23413348. S2CID 138774246.
- ^ "Joanna McKittrick". The American Ceramic Society. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ Fahrenholtz, Bill; Brennecka, Geoff; Dickey, Elizabeth; Ferreira, José; Klein, Lisa; Mauro, John; Ohji, Tatsuki; Riedel, Ralf; Viehland, Dwight; Wu, Yiquan; Xie, Rong-Jun (2020). "Remembering Joanna McKittrick". Journal of the American Ceramic Society. 103 (4): 2277. doi:10.1111/jace.16967. ISSN 1551-2916. S2CID 213757821.
- ^ "The Professor". Triton. 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
External links edit
- Website of the McKittrick Group, showing her UCSD laboratory's ongoing work on luminescent materials and biological materials.
- An interview with McKittrick at the blog Reigning It (January 19, 2016).
